CARL EDWARDS – No. 60 Scotts Water Smart Ford Fusion (Finished 43rd) – YOU HIT THE WALL TWICE. WHAT HAPPENED? “The first time was definitely my fault. I’ve just got to apologize to my guys. They’ve worked so hard lately. This Fusion was fast and everybody at Water Smart and Scotts, they dropped the green and I was ready to race. I got loose and hit the wall. I guess I cut down a tire and it looks like Matt is running well, though, maybe he’ll get a win for Ford today. But I just feel bad. That was a bad mistake and I learned my lesson there.” WHY SWAP SPOTS TO START THE RACE? “I think you saw at the beginning, Clint even got loose under me and we touched a little bit. I just figured the car was gonna be loose and I didn’t want to be on the bottom and get wrecked down there, but I managed to get myself loose being on the outside, so I guess either way I was kind of in a bad spot. Hopefully, tomorrow will go better.” ANY CHANCE OF GETTING BACK OUT THERE? “No, I don’t think we’re gonna make it back out. I’ll just be cheering for Matt from here on out.” 

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion (Finished 28th) – “We just had a loose wheel while we were leading and we had to pit because it was getting ready to fall off. When we came back out, I was just driving way over my head to somehow try to get back in the race. We were a lap down and I was trying to catch up where I thought the lucky dog was and I just let it get away from me. I was frustrated and mad at the moment and driving a little faster than I knew the car would take me and it just got away from me. It’s frustrating. Two weeks in a row – last week at Richmond we came out of the pits and had a wheel roll across and this week we had a loose one, so it’s frustrating.” ASSESS THE RACING. “Clean air is just really important. It’s kind of what we expected for a new track. I think Goodyear did a good job with the tire. It’s not so unbearable to drive at the beginning of the run that you can’t drive it and yet, knock on wood, nobody has had any tire problems. So I think Goodyear did a great job. They did a great job paving the track, but when you get a new track and a hard tire on this kind of track, when you get in dirty air it’s just really hard to pass so the leader has a big advantage and it’s gonna be an even bigger advantage tomorrow.”

DAVID RAGAN – No. 6 Discount Tire Ford Fusion (Finished 27th) – “I had a run on the 66 and got underneath and got him loose and spun it out. Certainly if he wouldn’t have been there I could have used a little bit more track and it would have been fine, but I was just trying to get a little too much there. The car felt really good. We got a little tight the last part in traffic and I just didn’t have the track position to win. I felt like if we could have been in the top two or three we had a winning car, but I should have just rode it out and got us a good finish, but I just wanted to get more and got a little too much.” A ROUGH NIGHT FOR THE TOP GUYS IN THE POINT STANDINGS. “Yeah, and a lot of it we asked for. I don’t know the details of everybody else, but it was just one of those nights where we’ve got great race cars and get a little frustrated there in the back and we just want a little too much. We hustle and go too hard and I was just trying to do a little too much.”

KELLY BIRES – No. 47 Clorox Ford Fusion (Finished 24th) – “We really had a great Clorox Ford Fusion all night. I got into the fence there about midway through the race and made us go back for a little bit. The guys did a great job fixing the car on pit road and setting the toe and just going through all the motions to get everything pointed back straight. We had a solid car there at the end. I think we were running ninth and I’m not sure what happened up ahead of me. I just know I checked up to go around it and got drilled from behind, but there was nothing I could do. We had a fast race car. We had tires at the end. We were sitting pretty and were probably gonna get a couple more cars and have a solid top-10 run, but that’s all we could do. The guys did a great job. We had a fast race car, but there was nothing we could do with how it finished.”

MARCOS AMBROSE – No. 59 Kingsford Charcoal Ford Fusion (Finished 10th) – “We just fought the track all night and got a top 10 out of it. I’m pretty pleased. We got lucky once or twice out there with caution flags and stuff, but we finished in the top 10 and for us, with where we’re at right now, I think we can really use that as a way to move forward.” WHAT WAS THE RACING LIKE OUT THERE WITH THIS NEW PAVEMENT? “It was OK once you got running. It was hard to set up passes and we fought it a little bit there. We got damage early, which didn’t help matters, but we fought on and finished. I just feel like we got a little lucky out there. We’ve got to be faster, but it’s somewhere to move from. We could have been packed up 10 laps into the race like a lot of them were, but we finished. We fought the track and I think we did OK.” 

BRAD COLEMAN – No. 27 Rite Aid Ford Fusion (Finished 12th) – “I’m smiling right now so I’m happy. We got a top-12 out of it. We started 22nd and as soon as the race started, we started making our way to the front. Just on that 60-lap run we got tight and just started dropping back. I told the guys I thought we were probably in like 30th and they said, ‘You’re running 17th.’ I was like, ‘Alright.’ We were better than I thought and they did a phenomenal job in the pits. They’ve been struggling these last couple of weeks, but this week they just proved they’re one of the best out there. Our Ford Fusion ran great and this is a fun track. It’s my first time here and I love it.” HOW DID YOU MANEUVER THOSE LAST FEW WRECKS? “I avoided the wrecks fine. That last wreck there with the 47 and all of those guys, I laid back because I had nothing to gain. I was the first car a lap down and we had to start single-file. I didn’t get the lucky dog because it was within 10 to go, so I dropped back a little bit and when I saw everyone starting to move around, I just started checking up and just went right down to the bottom, no problem.”